59 comments:

What a sobering, intensely moving tribute to the men to whom we owe so much most of whose history we've never known and whose names we either never knew or forgot long ago!

My eyes filled with tears as I listened, and my heart feels heavy with the burden of knowing that so shortly after the costly Allied Victory over worldwide Aggression, Destruction, Persecution and Despotism we have lived to see the enormous sacrifices of our Founders and the subsequent defenders of our sovereignty and prosperity engulfed and swept away in a rising tide of cynicism touting Sloth, Self-Indulgence, and the rabid desire to Get Even as the highest forms of good towards which we should aspire.

I have been acquainted with Paul Harvey since toddler hood. My mother and I used to listen to him on the radio back in the 1940's. Even as a four-year-old I could recognize the unique timbre of his delivery and sense the sincerity, wholesomeness and essential benevolence of the man.

I lost track of Mr. Harvey for many years, and had almost forgotten him when traveling one day in Florida trying to find something I could stand listening to on the car radio (an increasingly difficult task) I heard his familiar voice once again. It wasn't a recording from the old days -- Paul Harvey was still doing his thing some sixty-five years after I first became acquainted with him.

Not long after that I saw him -- for the very first time -- interviewed by Larry King. He was then in his late eighties and looked just as you see him in this splendid video. Too short a time after that I learned that he had died. I felt sad, but was happy to have been reunited with his unique broadcasting style so many decades after I'd first heard his voice.

Paul Harvey -- not unlike our Founders -- was a man wo stood for something all his long life. I'm glad he was never called upon to make the great sacrifices they did, but have no doubt he would have if push had ever come to shove.

Independence day is as much pr more of a time that should be set aside for sober, prayerful reflection as it is for partying. In latter days we've done too much of the latter and forgotten all about the former.

Hail, Columbua, happy land!Hail, ye Heroes, heaven born band,.Who fought and bled for freedom's causeWho fought and bled for freedom's causeAnd when the storm of war was doneEnjoyed the peace your valor won.

Let Independence be out boastEver mindful what it costEver grateful for the prizeLet our anthems reach the skies.

Firm, united let us beRallying 'round our libertyAs a band of brothers joinedPeace and safety we shall find.

~ Joseph Hopkinson

I've always thought one of hose lines would would read better if Mr. Hopkinson had written "Who THOUGHT and bled for Freedom's cause," instead of "Who FOUGHT and bled ..." for 'tis always the thought that is father to the deed.

Thank you, again for this wonderful, inspiring video, AOW. I hope everyone takes the time to absorb every detail of it with the greatest great care and respect. - FT

Yes, it’s the 4th of July and where are we today? Where have we been for the past 5 and a half years? We have been in an America that you and I can’t recognize. I have been here to your blog many times under another name and I know that YOU feel as I do about what has happened to our country in that short period of time. We thought that it couldn’t happen here didn’t we? But it did. Our great country has turned into a Socialist Nation. These Progressive IMBECILES that think they are the answer are the thorns in our ass’s. They think that being a Liberal is the answer to all our problems and that US Conservatives are off base and are the DEVIL! These people, the people like that Bitch Shaw, and that freakazoid Ducky, Libermann, and the PUTZ Jersey Boy are the ruination of the wonderful land we once called America! This is not the America that we grew up with, and it will not be the American that our Children will enjoy! These people do not realize that America was ONCE Great, and no longer is. They don’t think that patriotism is a wonderful feeling. Patriotism NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more MEANING to it than beer, fireworks, HOT DOGS, picnics, and going to the Mall for a bargain on a new pair of shoes. They sit behind their FREAKEN $150.00 Computers made in Haiti and type these poison comments about us Republicans because we are still Patriotic Americans, and we still believe in Country, and Apple Pie. Well I for one have had it with these SOB’s who put this Socialist in the White House and reelected him again. And also with Joe Biden who made that Disgusting Remark, “Conservatives are Domestic Terrorists” I for one who service my country for FOUR years of my life RESENT that crap coming form my own Vice president.But I know we can’t fight City Hall, so let me wish you and all your readers, and commenters (except the above for mentioned Idiots) a very Happy Forth of July! And No I haven’t given up, I’m just very frustrated and Pissed off.

... first one must understand what "these ends" are and why they are important and right. Obviously there are many today who fail that test, therefore we have the reality of today, gridlock and growing disillusionment in our Congress and the SCOTUS.

I doubt this nation has been as divided since the Civil War. I've got (had) Libtard family and friends that I no longer associate with. Cleaning up what I really mean, I could care less if they suddenly disappeared.

I MISSED WARREN!? DARN DARN DARN! I'll listen later, that's for sure. If you see this, Warren, and think of you and Mrs Warren often and you're both in my prayers. Paul Harvey was SO RIGHT...always, especially there. God bless America

It's disappointing to see all this hatred spewing out of the Right. You'd think today would be one the day they could put it away.

I didn't share Paul Harvey's particular brand of American chauvinism, but some of those little American stories he used to tell were heart-warming and sometimes really, really funny. This post really took be back. I regularly used to catch his little radio tidbits from later in his career (the "later" part alone went for decades), and always enjoyed them. Thanks for the 'rememories,' AoW.

Jersey, having long considered myself a conservative with traditional classically liberal fiscal and social values (conservative because of a great desire to preserve them) and I've become totally disillusioned with the republican, TP, neocon BS of today. Honesty is in short supply and platitudes, hyperbole, and often outright lies are more the norm.

As I celebrate our American independence and reflect on the real genius and integrity of our founders and brave patriots who gave there lives I can not help but shake my head and wonder just what will become of this once great, unified, and proud nation as selfish self interested (not the same as rational self interest) reactionary forces work to destroy our Democratic Republic.

Paul Harvey was unique as well as a true American Patriot and I for one always enjoyed listening to him.

Far worse than the political poles are the masses in between, who seem to only concern themselves with themselves and don't care a whiff about this country. That's the real problem. Too much self interest.

I suggest that you refer to the top, right hand margin of this site wherein, to quote, it says: "The TRUTH Is NOT HATE SPEECH". Avoidance of the "TRUTH" seems to be a characteristic of the Left. Although the "TRUTH" isn't always nice, it's always the "TRUTH"!

On This July 4th, DON'T "Thank A Liberal".... The liberals on these blogs always boast that the likes of Jefferson and Washington and Hamilton and Adams and Franklin and many other founding fathers were "liberals", and we should all "thank a liberal" for what the founding fathers risked everything to achieve.

This is, of course, absolute NONSENSE, and the liberals should hide their faces in SHAME for even suggesting that our founding fathers would have condoned, defended, and supported today's liberal social and economic agendas.

Would they have supported aborting millions of unborn babies under the guise of "privacy" and "reproductive rights"?

Would they have supported marriage between two men and marriage between two women?

Would they have supported the influx of millions of illegal aliens streaming across our borders unchecked?

Would they have supported providing millions of illegal aliens with federal and state-funded education, food, housing, and medical care?

Would they have supported deficit spending, crushing national debt, and the fiat currency system?

Would they have supported the creation of the Federal Reserve System and the resulting manipulation of our money supply and our country's economic health by the Federal Reserve Board?

Would they have supported the executive branch bypassing the legislative and judicial branches and unilaterally making laws via Executive Orders?

Would they have supported our participation in military actions in foreign countries that did not pose direct threats to the United States?

Would they have supported the breakdown of the family unit through divorce or illegitimacy or abuse or irresponsibility?

Would they have supported the erosion of state's rights via the judiciary?

Would they have supported the erosion of religious freedoms?

Would they have supported a gridlocked legislative branch and an extremely partisan and subjective judicial branch?

Would they have supported the widespread voter fraud that has affected countless local, state, and federal elections?

Would they have supported negotiating with terrorist organizations for the release of American hostages?

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding ABSOLUTELY NOT!

So today, if you must "thank a liberal" for something, thank them for ALL of the items I listed, and while you're at it, thank a few Faux Conservatives, those batty Libertarians and Republicans (RINO’S) too!

My conservative friends, I know that you are discouraged by the country's "transformation" and abuses of power that are unveiled every day.If you find yourself wondering why the United States, the Land of the Free has more prison inmates in 2014 that any other country on the planet, and that a staggering disproportion of today's inmates are the descendants of slavesThe reason why there are such a larger percentage of Blacks in jail today is because a larger percentage of Blacks are caught committing crimes. Not because the police are arresting Blacks for no reasons. As many of you know the Mayor of New York Bill de blasio has put a end to "Stop and Frisk", and due to that the Shootings and the Killings in New York has skyrocketed 43 percent in just the last month alone. New York’s new Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has shifted the focus from shootings to a steep decline in homicides when the old Police Commissioner Ray kelly and Mayor Bloomberg had controls and gun violence has gone wild within the Black communities. In the last month alone, 129 people were shot, according to the latest figures, or 43.3 percent more than for the same period last year. It is obvious that the alarming trend is the result of a the police force being handicapped by the inability to use tactics like stop-and-frisk..So lets ask these two GENIUS’S Bill Deblasio and Andrew Cuomo, how’s that increased gun control and the Stopping of 'Stop and Frisk' working for you! Boy you two Progressive/Liberal idiots really showed us.

There's no evidence the recent shootings in NYC had anything to do with the end of Stop and Frisk (which still exists to some degree). YEar of year, crime is still down overall. Spikes in shootings in large cities happen sometimes. But when you're a sleazy idiot using "black" crime to support a militarized Police State, I guess any cheap pseudo-science will do.

RN: Your comment about the NSA and Patriot Act expired in Jan 2009. That is when Obama took power and chose to leave both of them intact, when he had a chance to change them or even try to change them.

Then two years later he emphasized his support, by choosing to renew the Patriot Act in 2011. Obama has also gone out of his way to defend the NSA surveillance.

To crib from your puns about the ideology of those who give us this problem, up until 2009, we were "neoconned". Now we are "left" with these programs.

Bureaucracy, whether good or bad , once in place have a nasty habit of taking on a life of its own. Our "Patriot Act" should never have been passed in the first place and yes Obama should have nixed it in 2009 as well as the bureaucracy it created.

You and I both know the truth is the "Patriot Act" would have been unauthorized by a republican administration and the NSA would have thrived under continuing republican administrations as well.

Yesterday, I found the following comment at another blog that I frequent:

When Hamilton made a broad interpretation of ‘promote the general welfare’ to have the feds involved in private enterprise, Madison had a furious rebuttal. Madison viewed this as an expression of the enumerated powers that followed the phrase promote the general welfare (like coin money and run post offices). If they did as Hamilton wanted, Madison argued, they could take religion into their hands, establish teachers in every state, county and parish and pay them, take over the education of children. Congress could take everything under its power, down to the police. It would drive the nation to a Hobbesian state via a vast federal leviathan.

The dispute about the proper role of government -- big government vs. small government -- a debate back then, too.

Idiot? YOU are calling ME an IDIOT? You Sir are the biggest IDIOT on these boards, you justify the crap and the LIES you write by calling them “COINCIDENCES”? Is it a “Coincidence” that shootings and KILLING’S went UP 43 percent while a Progressive Mayor and Police Commissioner is in office only 6 months VS. a Mayor and Police Commissioner who was in office for 12 years ? Are YOU for Freaken REAL? And your calling ME an Idiot? You and your cohorts on thos Progressive boards are ALL IDIOT’S and deniers. So you say that overall crime is down in New York, but shootings and murders are up more than 43 percent! Wow! Tell that to the Mother and father who’s child was KILLED by an illegally owned gun in Harlem or in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn, where i came from. I can’t read a newspaper in the morning without seeing a story about another innocent Kid being shot from a wind bullet while playing in the playground!The sad part is by stopping “Stop and Frisk” is that you will see more and more young innocent Blacks becoming victim’s of crime.Every damn thing that you come here to write are either LIES or Bull-Crap or both! Your challenging the fact that more Blacks are being arrested and jailed as also a “COINCIDENCES”? Do you also believe in Unicorns, and other fairytales? I suppose that Kobe Bryant’s not supporting Trayvon Martin’s action the night he was killed is also Racist? This shows just how little liberals just like you have blanket devotion to black people whatsoever, no matter what! I guess that Kobe Bryant is also a “Racist”! You're just as much a racist as you claim Zimmerman was, because you can’t see any other side of the picture! Eric Holder said hate crimes can only be "White on black" not "Black on white, I guess that you agree with that as well? I guess that you’r going to tell me that the"Knockout" game aren't Hate Crimes either?....You are so predictable that it's a laugh. Everyone on this board laughs every time you make a comment.

Isn’t it funny how people like Jersey McJones refuse’s to accept reality. You Libs always have and you always will.Just like the rest of the progressives... Why is it that you Progressives like Obama want to rip up the Constitution? Why don't liberals come down to earth and accept reality? You people think that you can mandate a Utopia on others peoples assets. Your heads are in the clouds! You don’t know what the heck you are talking about and on top of that, you are subconsciously bigoted! But think everyone else is a racist.

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